Chapter 88: Arc 3: Chapter 5: The Most Familiar Stranger

Merlin stood alone at the lift entrance of the level 5 basement.

He hid in the shadows and put on his black combat uniform meant for covert operations, a black headgear on his head, and two baton-shaped tasers.

He adjusts his breathing to prepare himself for combat.

Fury and Vers are trying to leave, so Merlin has to buy them some time.

He's made up his mind to not accompany Fury. He has thought of another person related to Project Pegasus who was still alive.

Miss Carter, perhaps he could gain some more useful information from Miss Carter.

As for Fury, Merlin believes that with Fury's wisdom and sharp wit, he can escape here with Vers.

Most importantly, Vers was strong enough to protect Fury even if they do get in danger.

He also knows that Vers has been secretly keeping in touch with the Kree, so once Vers discovers some secrets, it's hard to say whether or not the Kree will land on Earth as the Skrulls did.

Earth is in enough trouble...so the aliens shouldn't meddle in it.

"Ding"

A light sound and the elevator doors open in front of him, a few armed young agents were just about to rush out. Merlin steps forward and accurately smacks the two taser batons on the chests of two agents, the strong electric current paralyzes the two and they fall onto the floor.

Black fog abruptly storms into the elevator as the other agents screamed in terror.

"Ding"

The elevator door closes up.

"Bang Bang Bang"

A few gunshots resound in the elevator, followed by screams of terror and fear.

"Ding"

5 seconds later, the elevator door opens up once again.

Merlin with his short batons walks out of the elevator, he moves his neck and tidies his clothes. Behind him were a few knocked-out agents who were stacked in a pile.

"Hurry! Hurry!"

In the level 5 basement, at the stairwell entrance of the archive room, under the leadership of two senior agents, two groups of agents storm into the archive room and begin searching the large storeroom one aisle at a time.

They, under the leadership of Director Keller, are here to search for Nick Fury who had betrayed the organization, and a dangerous woman who's wanted and assumably a foreign spy.

As the agents were searching, a hand is silently placed on the light switch, and following a light click, the lights of the archive room all extinguish in an instant.

The agents were caught by surprise by the sudden darkness, but then, the sound of something heavy being knocked down followed by either angry or frightened screams of their companions.

"Bam Bam Bam"

One after the other, the agents were struck down in the darkness, like there was a phantom roaming in the room.

The remaining agents held their guns and fired at the slightest movement.

Unfortunately, even the strongest bullet cannot harm the wind.

"Bam"

Merlin appears behind an agent, the short baton in his hand releases a strong electric current as it comes into contact with the agent's waist. His body trembles as he falls onto the ground screaming painfully.

The agents next to him look back and pull the trigger, but the rolling fog enshrouds them like a barrier.

The sound of the baton hitting the body was so terrifying, in a few seconds, the last standing agent falls onto the floor unconsciously; Merlin throws the blood off his baton and starts looking for his next target.

The archive room enshrouded by darkness is pretty much his hunting ground in the dark.

A female agent gets a whim and rushes over to the light switch, she tries to turn the lights back on to reveal the person in the darkness.

But just as she turned on the lights, she saw Merlin knock down her last companion.

There was nothing but silence in the archive room.

The 5 senior agents and the 20 rookie agents who entered were all knocked out in less than 5 minutes.

And she...

This lucky girl was the last one.

Unconcious agents littered the ground, along with the stinging smell of blood.

The girl thought that the light would give her some sense of security; yet at this moment, as she saw the attacker who was dressed in black and wore a headgear turn his head and look at her, under the light, the girl felt an indescribable sense of horror and fear slowly drowning her like the rising tide.

She watched as the man walked towards her with two batons in his hands.

She held the gun with both arms, and with her trembling arms, she tries to pull the trigger, but she couldn't!

Her fingers were going soft!

She was just a trainee agent who just underwent 5 months of training, she only fired at target marks and not actual targets. More importantly, when facing a monster who singlehandedly took down 25 agents, can the gun in her hands really protect her?

Merlin walks towards the frightened girl who had stuck herself against the wall, he looks at her, he could feel that the girl was trembling all over.

Fear had consumed her.

This was a true rookie...

Has Keller gone mad? He brought these rookies who haven't even finished their training here for combat?

Is he not scared that these rookies might actually die here?

Or is it that that Incompetent, that maniac, couldn't care less about the lives of these people?

"No! Stay back!"

The girl screamed, she points the gun in her hands at Merlin, tears begin to gather in her pretty eyes, they were tears of fear.

"Stay back! I'll shoot! I really will!"

"Child..."

Merlin stands three feet away from the girl, raises his arms, and speaks in a coarse tone:

"Has your instructor not taught you? To fire a gun, you must first turn off the safety!"

"Ah?"

The female agent looks down at her gun sharply, and then, Merlin's figure dissipates into black fog, then reappears with his left hand holding the girl's neck, easily raising her against the wall.

The girl was so frightened that she didn't even struggle.

Merlin reaches out and picks up the nameplate hanging on the girl's chest, he glances at it, shakes his head, then releases the terrified girl, letting her slump onto the floor against the wall.

Merlin squats down, he reaches out and pats on the girl's face, saying:

"Agent Maria Hill, unfortunately..."

"You've got some quick thinking, but you failed your agent training!"

"Prepare to go back and train some more!"

As he finishes, in agent Hill's horrified gaze, Merlin's figure vanishes in front of her, as if it never existed in the first place.

The girl holds her arms fearfully, she looks around and tries to find Merlin's trace. But she couldn't, a dozen seconds later, she threw away her gun and covered her face with both hands, letting out a faint cry...

She was crying because of Merlin...

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Merlin did not notice the breakdown of the rookie agent Maria Hill, he walks out of the archive room and finds a muscular man wearing a military uniform standing at the end of the hallway while looking at him fiercely.

Merlin sensed a special atmosphere from this stranger.

An atmosphere much more dangerous than those agents.

"Shwa"

The soldier raises the gun in his hand and opens fire at Merlin. And Merlin's figure dissipates like it was blown apart by the bullet, storming towards the soldier through the air.

"Bam"

The solidified Merlin smacks on the soldier's jaw, knocking him back several steps while disarming him, throwing the gun onto the floor. But after receiving a punch from Merlin, the soldier simply moved his neck and was combat-ready once more.

This made Merlin more surprised.

He had been injected with the Super Soldier Serum, albeit with just half the normal dosage, his strength increase was limited, yet the force of 800 pounds is not easily shrugged off by ordinary people.

This means that there is something odd with the guy in front of him!

"Ah!"

The soldier lets out a roar and rushes towards Merlin with his fist raised, smashing towards his head. Merlin's figure disappears once again and dodges the attack, he smashes the baton onto the soldier's back. This attack that's strong enough to cripple a bull only briefly paused the soldier's movement.

He turns around and grabs Merlin with a grappling posture.

But as the darkness dissipates, he misses.

Merlin places the taser batons back into his waist and takes out the combat knife from his boot, he grips the knife and stabs it into the soldier's leg as they exchanged blows.

It felt like he had stabbed into a piece of tough leather.

"Skrull!"

Merlin blurts out while dodging the alien's elbow attack.

After realizing that the man in front of him was not an Earthling, Merlin begins to get serious, and as the black fog rolls, the alien was stabbed 7 times, the bluish-purple blood was splattered all over the hallway.

"Bam Bam"

Merlin smashes two heavy fists onto the alien's shoulders, knocking him onto his knees.

He fixes the alien's head with both hands, lifts his knee, and like a cannonball, heavily smashes it into his face.

"Kacha"

Following a muffled sound, the nasal bridge of this strong and large alien collapses, and as blood spewed outward, his figure wobbled down onto the ground.

"Fuh"

Merlin moves his arms and takes a step back, he looks at the alien on the floor who had revealed his true form due to exhaustion, he looked identical to the alien on the dissection table.

As suspected, these guys were interfering.

"Bang"

As Merlin prepares to tie up the alien, a gunshot resounds behind him, though the bullet penetrated his body as if it had penetrated the fog.

Merlin turns back and looks at the attacker.

It was a serious-looking person wearing a blue suit, tie, and frameless glasses.

It was Keller!

Although Merlin had never met him in person, he's seen his picture from Fury.

"Release him!"

Keller sees as a pistol could not harm Merlin, so he takes out another gun from his waist; it did not look to be made on Earth, it looked to be some type of energy weapon.

"You black fog monster!"

Keller holds the energy gun and says in an intense tone:

"You disrupted our operation! Hell! We had no intentions of making an enemy of you! All we want is the girl!"

While being pointed by the energy gun, Merlin senses danger, it sources from the alien weapon, which can supposedly harm him. So he stands up, raises his arms, and looks at Keller, or to say, the Skrull shapeshifted as Keller and says:

"Vers is one of us now! You'll have to go through us regardless of what you're planning!"

"We don't plan to do anything! We aren't trying to harm her!"

Keller says:

"We just want to live! Why can't you understand! The Kree are the real warmongers! They're coming to your planet! That tyrant Ronan the Accuser will level your planet to the ground! Trust me, he will! That maniac loves war and slaughter...he destroyed our home planet like that!"

"None of my business."

Merlin lowers his finger slightly, he looks at Keller in front of him and blurts out a word Keller didn't understand.

"Expelliarmus!"

Following the flick of Merlin's finger, a disarming spell accurately flies out; the energy gun jumps out of Keller's hand as if it were alive.

The energy gun gets thrown into Merlin's hand like it was being moved by an invisible force.

This fantasy-like scene surprises the Skrull.

But Merlin did not give him time to react and pulled the trigger as soon as the energy gun was in his hands.

"Pa Pa Pa"

Three heat rays shoot towards the Skrull disguised as Keller, the latter raises his arm and forms an energy shield in front of him, blocking the heat rays while he rolled on the floor in a mess.

Merlin attempts to give pursuit, but the nearly fainted Skrull warrior behind him grabs onto Merlin's legs and shouts in an obscure alien language:

"Go! Talos! Leave! They're going to Louisiana! Find them!"

"Bam"

Merlin lifts his foot and kicks on the alien's face, knocking him out for good. But as Merlin looks back, there was no sign of the alien Talos.

That guy...he's fast!

"No worries, there's still you!"

Merlin lowers his head and looks at the unconscious Skrull at his feet, he lets out a breath, stores the alien weapon into his spatial pocket, then reaches out to carry the alien.

And then, following the sound of a gun's safety being turned off resounds, a familiar voice resounds behind Merlin:

"Don't move! Or I'll shoot!"

The voice causes Merlin to freeze at the spot.

He turns back and looks at the young man wearing an agent uniform while holding a gun with absolute disbelief.

That brown hair, those grey eyes, the face that looks serious when he purses his lips, as well as the slightly grown hairline over the years...

"Phil Coulson..."

"How...are you here?"

 

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